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Music Terms Glossary - C
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

cadence cadential The musical punctuation that separates phrases or periods, creating a sense of rest or conclusion that ranges from momentary to final.

cadenza An improvised passage for a soloist, usually placed within the closing ritornello in a concerto movement.

canon (1) Strict imitation, in which one voice imitates another at a staggered time interval; (2) a piece that uses canon throughout, such as "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

cantata A Baroque genre for voice(s) and instruments on a sacred or secular poem, including recitatives, arias, and sometimes choruses.

cantus firmus ("fixed melody") A pre-existing plainchant or secular melody incorporated into a polyphonic composition, common from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries.

castrato A male singer castrated during boyhood to preserve his soprano or alto vocal register. Castratos played a prominent role in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century opera.

CD-ROM Compact disc-read only memory. A compact-disc technology that enables a personal computer to access digitally text, still images, moving pictures, and sound.

celesta A small keyboard instrument invented in 1886 whose hammers strike a series of resonating steel plates to produce a bell-like but veiled sound. Used by composers from Tchaikovsky to Boulez.

cell In certain twentieth-century compositions,a brief, recurring musical figure that does not undergo traditional motivic development.

chamber music Music played by small ensembles, such as a string quartet, with one performer to a part.

chance music A type of contemporary music in which some or all of the elements, such as rhythm or the interaction among voices, are left to chance.

chanson (French, "song") The most popular form of secular vocal music in northern Europe during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. character piece A short Romantic piano piece that expresses a single overall mood. choir (1) A vocal ensemble with more than one singer to a part; (2) a section of an instrumental ensemble, such as a brass choir.

chorale (1) A German hymn, especially popular in the Baroque; (2) a polyphonic setting of such a hymn, such as those by J. S. Bach.

chord A group of three or more pitches sounded simultaneously.

chordal style An alternate term for homophony. chorus (1) Same as choir; (2) each varied repetition of a 12-bar blues pattern; (3) the principal section of an American popular song, following the verse(s).

chromatic A descriptive term for melodies or harmonies that use all or most of the twelve degrees of the octave.

chromatic scale The pattern that results when all twelve adjacent semitones in an octave are played successively.

clef   In musical notation, a symbol at the beginning of a staff that determines the pitches of the lines and spaces. The most common clefs are treble (4) for indicating pitches mostly above middle C and bass (9;) for indicating pitches mostly below middle C.

closing area  In a movement in sonata form, the final stage in an exposition or recapitulation that confirms the temporary or home key with a series of cadences.

coda The optional final section of a movement or an entire composition.

combinatorial A descriptive term for tone rows in which the second half is a transposed version of the first half.

compound meters Duple or triple meters in which the individual beats are subdivided into triple units.

concertina The solo group in a Baroque concerto grosso.

concerto An instrumental composition for orchestra and soloist (or a small group of soloists).

concerto grosso The principal variety of Baroque concerto, for a small group of soloists (the concertino) and a larger ensemble (the ripieno).

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